Programme 7 - Extra-terrestrial intelligence

This programme equips learners to consider and respond to these questions:
• What impact would the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) have on religion?
• How would such a discovery alter your assessment of the importance or otherwise of human beings? Would it make us less significant in the universe?

Extraterrestrial life is a possibility, but nothing tells us for certain what might exist on distant planets. Here on earth, while the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) goes on, we still only have guesswork. Earth-like planets are many, but is human life unique? How would it be if we found life on other planets, but nothing more advanced than a worm or a slug?

Some people might live with no intellectual accomplishments, no unusual intelligence, but with a high level of spirituality, of loving unselfishness. Could ETI be spiritual in ways we cannot yet conceive on earth? What if the extraterrestrials were a pure race with no sin or evil? Or if they came to us seeking the wisdom of the Buddha?